John
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	John 21
15.	When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon son of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs.	Cum ergo prandissent, dicit Simoni Petro Jesus : Simon Joannis, diligis me plus his ? Dicit ei : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.	οτε ουν ηριστησαν λεγει τω σιμωνι πετρω ο ιησους σιμων ιωνα αγαπας με πλειον τουτων λεγει αυτω ναι κυριε συ οιδας οτι φιλω σε λεγει αυτω βοσκε τα αρνια μου
16.	He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs.	Dicit ei iterum : Simon Joannis, diligis me ? Ait illi : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.	λεγει αυτω παλιν δευτερον σιμων ιωνα αγαπας με λεγει αυτω ναι κυριε συ οιδας οτι φιλω σε λεγει αυτω ποιμαινε τα προβατα μου
17.	He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep.	Dicit ei tertio : Simon Joannis, amas me ? Contristatus est Petrus, quia dixit ei tertio : Amas me ? et dixit ei : Domine, tu omnia nosti, tu scis quia amo te. Dixit ei : Pasce oves meas.	λεγει αυτω το τριτον σιμων ιωνα φιλεις με ελυπηθη ο πετρος οτι ειπεν αυτω το τριτον φιλεις με και ειπεν αυτω κυριε συ παντα οιδας συ γινωσκεις οτι φιλω σε λεγει αυτω ο ιησους βοσκε τα προβατα μου
18.	Amen, amen I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not.	Amen, amen dico tibi : cum esses junior, cingebas te, et ambulabas ubi volebas : cum autem senueris, extendes manus tuas, et alius te cinget, et ducet quo tu non vis.	αμην αμην λεγω σοι οτε ης νεωτερος εζωννυες σεαυτον και περιεπατεις οπου ηθελες οταν δε γηρασης εκτενεις τας χειρας σου και αλλος σε ζωσει και οισει οπου ου θελεις
19.	And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he saith to him: Follow me.	Hoc autem dixit significans qua morte clarificaturus esset Deum. Et cum hoc dixisset, dicit ei : Sequere me.	τουτο δε ειπεν σημαινων ποιω θανατω δοξασει τον θεον και τουτο ειπων λεγει αυτω ακολουθει μοι

Two aspects of this passage do not translate well.

The first two times Christ asks "lovest thou me" using the verb "agapo", "αγαπας με", yet St. Peter responds using a different verb, "φιλω σε". The third time both Jesus and St. Peter use the second verb, "φιλεις με" -- "φιλω σε". The former verb indicates a spiritual love, and the second, friendship.

The three charges are all worded differently (the English translation only picks up two variations). "βοσκε τα αρνια μου" is "feed my lambs", "ποιμαινε τα προβατα μου" is "shepherd (guide) my sheep", and finally "βοσκε τα προβατα μου" -- "feed my sheep"

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

John CHAP. 21

21:15–17

15. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

16. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

17. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

THEOPHYLACT. The dinner being ended, He commits to Peter the superintendence over the sheep of the world, not to the others: So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?

AUGUSTINE. Our Lord asked this, knowing it: He knew that Peter not only loved Him, but loved Him more than all the rest.

ALCUIN. He is called Simon, son of John, John being his natural father. But mystically, Simon is obedience, John grace, a name well befitting him who was so obedient to God’s grace, that he loved our Lord more ardently than any of the others. Such virtue arising from divine gift, not mere human will.

AUGUSTINE. While our Lord was being condemned to death, he feared, and denied Him. But by His resurrection Christ implanted love in his heart, and drove away fear. Peter denied, because he feared to die: but when our Lord was risen from the dead, and by His death destroyed death, what should he fear? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. On this confession of his love, our Lord commends His sheep to him: He saith unto him, Feed My lambs: as if there were no way of Peter’s shewing his love for Him, but by being a faithful shepherd, under the chief Shepherd.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxviii. 1) That which most of all attracts the Divine love is care and love for our neighbour. Our Lord passing by the rest, addresses this command to Peter: he being the chief of the Apostles, the mouth of the disciples, and head of the college. Our Lord remembers no more his sin in denying Him, or brings that as a charge against him, but commits to him at once the superintendence over his brethren. If thou lovest Me, have rule over thy brethren, shew forth that love which thou hast evidenced throughout, and that life which thou saidst thou wouldest lay down for Me, lay down for the sheep.

He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. cxxii) Well doth He say to Peter, Lovest thou Me (ἀγαπᾶς diligis), and Peter answer, Amo Te (φελῶ amo), and our Lord replies again, Feed My lambs. Whereby, it appears that amor and dilectio are the same thing: especially as our Lord the third time He speaks does not say, Diligis Me, but Amas Me. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? A third time our Lord asks Peter whether he loves Him. Three confessions are made to answer to the three denials; that the tongue might shew as much love as it had fear, and life gained draw out the voice as much as death threatened.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxviii) A third time He asks the same question, and gives the same command; to shew of what importance He esteems the superintendence of His own sheep, and how He regards it as the greatest proof of love to Him.

THEOPHYLACT. Thence is taken the custom of threefold confession in baptism.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxviii) The question asked for the third time disturbed him: Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? He was afraid perhaps of receiving a reproof again for professing to love more than he did. So he appeals to Christ Himself: And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things, i. e. the secrets of the heart, present and to come.

AUGUSTINE. (de Verb. Dom. serm. 50) He was grieved because he was asked so often by Him Who knew what He asked, and gave the answer. He replies therefore from his inmost heart; Thou knowest that I love Thee.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. cxxiv) He says no more, He only replies what he knew himself; he knew he loved Him; whether any else loved Him he could not tell, as he could not see into another’s heart: (non occ.). Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep; as if to say, Be it the office of love to feed the Lord’s flock, as it was the resolution of fear to deny the Shepherd.

THEOPHYLACT. There is a difference perhaps between lambs and sheep. The lambs are those just initiated, the sheep are the perfected.

ALCUIN. To feed the sheep is to support the believers in Christ from falling from the faith, to provide earthly sustenance for those under us, to preach and exemplify withal our preaching by our lives, to resist adversaries, to correct wanderers.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. cxxiii) They who feed Christ’s sheep, as if they were their own, not Christ’s, shew plainly that they love themselves, not Christ; that they are moved by lust of glory, power, gain, not by the love of obeying, ministering, pleasing God. Let us love therefore, not ourselves, but Him, and in feeding His sheep, seek not our own, but the things which are His. For whoso loveth himself, not God, loveth not himself: man that cannot live of himself, must die by loving himself; and he cannot love himself, who loves himself to his own destruction. Whereas when He by Whom we live is loved, we love ourselves the more, because we do not love ourselves; because we do not love ourselves in order that we may love Him by Whom we live.

AUGUSTINE. (Serm. Pass.) But unfaithful servants arose, who divided Christ’s flock, and handed down the division to their successors: and you hear them say, Those sheep are mine, what seekest thou with my sheep, I will not let thee come to my sheep. If we call our sheep ours, as they call them theirs, Christ hath lost His sheep.

21:18–19

18. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.

19. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxvii) Our Lord having made Peter declare his love, informs him of his future martyrdom; an intimation to us how we should love: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest. He reminds him of his former life, because, whereas in worldly matters a young man has powers, an old man none; in spiritual things, on the contrary, virtue is brighter, manliness stronger, in old age; age is no hindrance to grace. Peter had all along desired to share Christ’s dangers; so Christ tells him, Be of good cheer; I will fulfil thy desire in such a way, that what thou hast not suffered when young, thou shalt suffer when old: But when thou art old. Whence it appears, that he was then neither a young nor an old man, but in the prime of life.

ORIGEN. (super. Matt.) It is not easy to find any ready to pass at once from this life; and so he says to Peter, When thou art old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hand.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. cxxiii. 5) That is, shalt be crucified. And to come to this end, Another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. First He said what would come to pass, secondly, how it would come to pass. For it was not when crucified, but when about to be crucified, that he was led whither he would not. He wished to be released from the body, and be with Christ; but, if it were possible, he wished to attain to eternal life without the pains of death: to which he went against his will, but conquered by the force of his will, and triumphing over the human feeling, so natural a one, that even old age could not deprive Peter of it. But whatever be the pain of death, it ought to be conquered by the strength of love for Him, Who being our life, voluntarily also underwent death for us. For if there is no pain in death, or very little, the glory of martyrdom would not be great.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxviii) He says, Whither thou wouldest not, with reference to the natural reluctance of the soul to be separated from the body; an instinct implanted by God to prevent men putting an end to themselves. Then raising the subject, the Evangelist says, This spake He, signifying by what death he should glorify God: not, should die: he expresses himself so, to intimate that to suffer for Christ was the glory of the sufferer. (non occ.). But unless the mind is persuaded that He is very God, the sight of Him can in no way enable us to endure death. Wherefore the death of the saints is certainty of divine glory.

AUGUSTINE. (Tract. cxxiii) He who denied and loved, died in perfect love for Him, for Whom he had promised to die with wrong haste. It was necessary that Christ should first die for Peter’s salvation, and then Peter die for Christ’s Gospel.

Catena Aurea John 21

Who Is Norbert of Xanten?

Norbert of Xanten (c. 1075-1134) was a nobleman, courtier, ascetic, legendary peacemaker, and an exemplar of the apostolic way of life; he was a priest of the Catholic Church who founded the Norbertine order in the 12th century. He built the order on the basis of love, selfless sharing and radical hospitality.

Historical Setting
The 11th-century church was the kind of world where Martin Luther might have felt at home, for it was a church teeming with reforms. Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand) set about eliminating the practice of lay investiture, or lay control of the appointment of bishops. Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercians were revolutionizing the monastic world with a stern return to the primitive Rule of Benedict. And Norbert of Xanten led a thoroughgoing movement to improve the lives of the parish clergy. With the pope focusing on the bishops, Bernard concentrating on the monks and Norbert emphasizing the parish clergy, the times witnessed a resurgence of Christian spirit beneficial to the church and world alike.

Norbert of Xanten did not begin his career as a reformer. In fact, it was quite the opposite, for he seemed bent on being a clerical opportunist of the type that was actually eroding the credibility and effectiveness of the church. Through the influence of his family he obtained a financial subsidy from the parish church at Xanten, a town near the Holland-German border, when he accepted ordination to the subdiaconate. His only task was to chant the Divine Office at the church, but he apparently paid someone a small fee to take his place in the choir, because he gained an appointment as a chaplain-religious counselor to the emperor, Henry V, in Cologne.

The salaries from the Xanten fund and the royal treasury were enough to equip him to live in the pleasurable style of the nobility of the time. He was not, however, a man devoid of idealism and moral sensitivity. The seeds of his moral conversion were planted during a lengthy stay in Rome with Henry V in which he witnessed the breakdown of negotiations over the lay-investiture issue. He saw the pope standing firm on the principle that it was wrong for a secular power to control the appointment of bishops both because it gave the impression that the origin of sacramental ministry comes from a secular source and not from God, and, secondly, because it contributed to the corruption of the episcopacy. At the same time, he noted the emperor would not yield and was willing to keep the pope under house arrest until the pope changed his mind.

Conversion and Early Ministry
Norbert found himself sympathetic to the pope and experiencing the dawn of a moral awakening. This development was accentuated a year later when he was nearly killed by a bolt of lightening during a storm. He decided to withdraw from imperial service and go into seclusion at the Abbey of Siegburg to permit himself a thorough self-evaluation. After three years of self-scrutiny and prayer, he concluded that he should seek ordination to the priesthood and commit himself to Jesus and the ideals of the Gospel.

A changed man, he returned to the parish community at Xanten, determined to live as a principled priest and anxious to engage in active ministry in the area. The easy-going clergymen of Xanten disliked the “new” Norbert and were annoyed by his enthusiasm as well as by the implied reproach that his life cast on theirs. Realizing that he was out of place with these men, he decided to leave them and embark on a life of evangelical poverty. He divested himself of all his possessions and successfully sought permission from the pope to become a missionary preacher.

For the next several years he roamed through western Germany, Belgium and France, preaching repentance, peace and moral reform. The darker side of feudalism gave him much to preach about. The absence of an effective police force or national militia allowed for continuous brutality, brawls and feuds. The ordinary citizen faced the unpredictable violence of armed knights. Those Iron Men, clad in their suits of armor, often plundered whatever they wished, with little resistance from the vast majority of helpless people. Norbert preached peace, mercy and consideration to a world that was hardly a Camelot or the serene kingdom of an Ivanhoe.

In settlement after settlement, he would find cases of armed combat and hatred. In addition, he encountered a demoralized clergy, lonely, often practicing concubinage and feeling that the official church cared little about them. He had plenty of work to do when hearing out the complaints of the serfs, who were little more than slaves caught in a hopeless situation of bondage.

At the same time, Norbert came in touch with reforms. In Paris, he would have witnessed the Canons of St. Victor – that is, parish clergy who adopted the ascetic ideals of William of Champagne.

At Clairvaux and Citeaux, he would have beheld the Cistercian reforms of the world of the monks. He noted that their churches had plain wooden crosses and walls bare of pictures or stained glass, that their diet was vegetarian, and that they were allowed only six hours of sleep a night but were required to to work at least seven hours a day in manual labor, mostly farm work. He also became acquainted with the Cistercian administrative system that created an international federation of monasteries with a fair amount of centralized power, though local houses had a certain amount of independence. These reforms, written up in their “Charter of Charity,” would affect him significantly in his own future work.

Forming Community
In 1120, he came to the city of Laon at the request of Bishop Bartholomew, where part of his assignment included the spiritual renewal of the Canons of St. Martin’s. Norbert failed to change them. Bartholomew, was convinced that Norbert had a great deal more to offer and that he should stay in the area and establish a community of priests very much in line with his own personal ideals. After a considerable number of conversations, Norbert agreed and negotiations were begun to create a community of canons regular.

Historian Barbara Tuchman notes in her study “A Distant Mirror” that the Duke De Coucy, who was the overlord of the area of Soissons, awarded a land grant to Norbert in the valley of Prémontré for the purpose of establishing an abbey there. Norbert and a few companions cleared out some of the land for a settlement and rebuilt the ruined chapel of John the Baptist.

On Christmas day, 1120, Norbert inaugurated the Canons Regular of Prémontré, an order also called Premonstratensians – or, more simply, Norbertines.They swore to seek Christ by means of community living, poverty, obedience, celibacy and a dedication to the active priestly ministry. Norbert held before them the dream of the first Christians after Pentecost whose community life was characterized by the power of the Holy Spirit and a desire to be of service to others.

For a rule of life, Norbert chose the Rule of St. Augustine, as was common among communities of clergy. In addition, he adapted some of the customs of the Cistercians. Even more of these would be brought in later by Norbert’s successor, Abbot Hugh of Fosse. It was his idea that his clergy would reflect the reforms for ministry instituted by Pope Gregory VII and have the reformation spirit he had witnessed among the Cistercians. In effect, he produced a community that would be somewhat monastic as far as house ministry. The whole idea was that his active priest needed an ascetic and contemplative haven, and that was the purpose of the abbey discipline.

Norbert as Bishop
In terms of numbers and growth, his plan was hugely successful. Within a few generations there were Norbertine abbeys all over northern Europe. Within eight years, Norbert found himself nominated to be the Archbishop of Madgeburg. Like Augustine at Hippo, Norbert turned his residence into a Norbertine monastery and so carried to east Europe the ideals he instituted at Prémontré. Always a man to be ready to develop his ideas further, he softened the monastic aspect of the lives of his men at Madgeburg so they might have a more dynamic sense of outreach and commitment to active ministry. Experience had shown him that monastic practices tended to pull the men away from external ministry and withdraw them too much from the world.

Even though Norbert was a man of deep prayer and spirituality, he was a person aggressively interested in the needs of the people. Almost certainly, his many years as a missionary accounted for for his action-oriented mindset and therefore his ability to note the boundaries of inwardness that his abbeys observed. The administrative model of an international federation of abbeys did much to sustain these communities of canons and assure many of them centuries of survival as centers of service to the people and the parishes. Before Norbert’s time, communities of canons tended to be individualized and isolated, lacking supervision, control and means of self-renewal. The Norbertine canons surmounted this pitfall both by the above-mentioned organizational model as well as by the unique adaptations Norbert made to the Rule of Augustine.

Norbert died in 1134, leaving behind him an example of ministry-minded priests living in community – a model that was to become a norm about a century later.

Reflection
Norbert attempted to reproduce the lifestyle of the apostolic community of the early church. In his theological outlook, he saw the Holy Spirit as the originating power of the group. Common prayer and celebration of the Eucharist was to be the sustaining dynamic of the community. Selfless sharing and reaching out with love was the moral power that should surge from the members.

He dreamed of the emergence of a primary community whose members had the capacity to live together with a shared value system and shared beliefs. The first sentence of their rule said, “Be of one mind and heart in God.” Thus they were to have the ability to model and generate other communities based on divine love and human sharing.

By emphasizing the primacy of communal love in Premonstratensian existence, Norbert sparked all over Europe the possibilities for parish and other ministerial clergy to live in a soul-satisfying community context. This is a goal still being sought for today.

A new biography of Norbert, Man on Fire: The Life & Spirit of Norbert of Xanten, by Thomas Kunkel, appeared in 2019. The book, published by the St. Norbert College Press in association with the Center for Norbertine Studies, is available from the center or online.

*Courtesy of St. Norbert Abbey.

snc.edu

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY(RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

First Reading:

From: Acts 25:13b-21

Festus Briefs Agrippa
---------------------
[13] Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus. [14] And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, "There is a man left prisoner by Felix; [15] and when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews gave information about him, asking for sentence against him. [16] I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up any one before the accused met the accusers face to face, and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him. [17] When therefore they came together here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought in. [18] When the accusers stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed; [19] but they had certain points of dispute with him about their own superstition and about one Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. [20] Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wished to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them. [21] But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I commanded him to be held until I send him to Caesar."

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Commentary:

13. Herod Agrippa II was a son of Herod Agrippa I. He was born in the year 27. Like his father he had won favor with Rome and had been given various territories in northern Palestine, which he was allowed to rule with the title of king. Bernice was his sister.

19. Festus' words show his indifference towards Paul's beliefs and his religious controversy with the Jews. The conversation between the two politicians reveals a typical attitude of worldly men to matters which they consider far-fetched and irrelevant as far as everyday affairs are concerned. This passage also shows us that in the course of his trial Paul must have had an opportunity to speak about Jesus and confess his faith in the Resurrection.

Jesus Christ is alive; he is the center of history and the center of each and every person's existence. "The Church believes that Christ, who died and was raised for the sake of all (cf. 2 Cor 5:15) can show man the way and strengthen him through the Spirit in order to be worthy of his destiny: nor is there any other name under heaven given among men by which they can be saved (cf. Acts 4:12). The Church likewise maintains that the key, the center and the purpose of the whole of man's history is to be found in its Lord and Master. She also maintains that beneath all that changes there is much that is unchanging, much that has its ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday, and today, and forever (cf. Heb 13:8)" (Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 10).

"Stir up that fire of faith. Christ is not a figure that has passed. He is not a memory that is lost in history.

"He lives! '"Jesus Christus heri et hodie, ipse et in saecula"', says Saint Paul—Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever"' (St J. Escriva, The Way, 584).

21. "Caesar" and "Augustus" were titles of the Roman emperor. At this time the emperor was Nero (54-68).

Gospel Reading:

From: John 21:15-19

Peter's Primacy
----------------
[15] When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love You." He said to him, "Feed My lambs." [16] A second time He said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord, you know I love You." He said to him, "Tend My sheep." [17] He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep. [18] Truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." [19] (This He said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this He said to him, "Follow Me."

***********************************************************************
Commentary:

15-17. Jesus Christ had promised Peter that he would be the primate of the Church (cf. Matthew 16:16-19 and note on the same). Despite his three denials during our Lord's passion, Christ now confers on him the primacy He promised.

"Jesus questions Peter, three times, as if to give him a triple chance to atone for his triple denial. Peter has learned his lesson from the bitter experience of his wretchedness. Aware of his weakness, he is deeply convinced that rash claims are pointless. Instead he puts everything in Christ's hands. `Lord, You know well that I love You" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 267). The primacy was given to Peter directly and immediately. So the Church has always understood--and so Vatican I defined: "We therefore teach and declare that, according to the testimony of the Gospel, the primacy of jurisdiction over the universal Church of God was immediately and directly promised and given to Blessed Peter the Apostle by Christ our Lord. [...] And it was upon Simon Peter alone that Jesus after His resurrection bestowed the jurisdiction of chief pastor and ruler over all His fold in the words: "Feed My lambs; feed My sheep" ("Pastor Aeternus", Chapter 1).

The primacy is a grace conferred on Peter and his successors, the popes; it is one of the basic elements in the Church, designed to guard and protect its unity: "In order that the episcopate also might be one and undivided, and that [...] the multitude of the faithful might be kept secure in the oneness of faith and communion, He set Blessed Peter over the rest of the Apostles, and fixed in him the abiding principle of this twofold unity, and its visible foundation" ("Pastor Aeternus, Dz-Sch 3051"; cf. Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 18). Therefore, the primacy of Peter is perpetuated in each of his successors: this is something which Christ disposed; it is not based on human legislation or custom.

By virtue of the primacy, Peter, and each of his successors, is the shepherd of the whole Church and vicar of Christ on earth, because he exercises vicariously Christ's own authority. Love for the Pope, whom St. Catherine of Siena used to call "the sweet Christ on earth", should express itself in prayer, sacrifice and obedience.

18-19. According to Tradition, St. Peter followed his Master to the point of dying by crucifixion, head downwards, "Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in Rome during Nero's persecution of Christians, which took place between the years 64 and 68. St. Clement, the successor of the same Peter in the See of the Church of Rome, recalls this when, writing to the Corinthians, he puts before them `the generous example of these two athletes': `due to jealousy and envy, those who were the principal and holiest columns suffered persecution and fought the fight unto death'" (Pope Paul VI, "Petrum Et Paulum").

"Follow Me!": these words would have reminded the Apostle of the first call he received (cf. Matthew 4:19) and of the fact that Christ requires of His disciples complete self-surrender: "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up the Cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). St. Peter himself, in one of his letters, also testifies to the Cross being something all Christians must carry: "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps" (1 Peter 2:21).

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Readings at Mass

'I ordered Paul to be remanded until I could send him to Caesar'

Feed my lambs, feed my sheep

Universalis podcast: The week ahead – from 8 to 14 June

Christian Art

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

John CHAP. 21

Who Is Norbert of Xanten?